CES: It's a electric CES has been used as a platform for automakers to launch new electric vehicles since at least the middle of the last decade. And this year was no different, although maybe even more than in the past. General Motors CEO and Chair Mary Barra, who introduced the Chevy Bolt EV on the CES stage back in 2016, came back virtually again with a bevy of announcements related to its electric vehicle plans. First up was the reveal of the Chevy Silverado EV. GM introduced two trims, a basic work truck called at WT that has a range of 400 miles, up to 664 horsepower and a starting price of $39,900. Then there is the RST First Edition, a fully loaded, four-wheel steering truck that will start at $105,000. The Silverado EV is the third electric truck announced by GM, following the Hummer EV and the Sierra Denali. Little is known about the Denali — GM teased it just last month — but it appears the Silverado shares the majority of its parts with the impressive Hummer EV. Don’t mistake the Silverado EV as an afterthought, editor Matt Burns noted in his report. The Silverado EV is the most important of the bunch. The Chevy Silverado has long been the main competitor with the top-selling Ford F-150 pickup. Side note: Last week Ford said it was doubling production capacity of the new all-electric F-150 Lightning. Barra also confirmed — and showed pictures of — an electric Chevy Equinox as well as a Chevy Blazer that will both come in 2023. What might have been missed during the splashy event (there were a number of announcements) was an image of a pontoon boat that flashed behind Barra as she spoke. Image Credits: GM I got confirmation from GM that this is the newest boat from Pure Watercraft, which separately revealed the new product at CES 2022 and opened up pre-orders. If you recall, the automaker took a 25% stake in the Seattle-based electric boat company last November. This is the first product to come from GM’s investment in Pure Watercraft. The boat uses GM EV components. What makes this so interesting, beyond the EV boat, is that this illustrates GM’s broader push into EV component strategy, which the company thinks has an addressable market of $20B by 2030. This includes marine applications, along with EV crate motors for historic vehicles and converting equipment like airport ground support vehicles to electric propulsion. I chatted with Travis Hester, GM’s VP of EV growth operations so stay tuned this coming week for insights on this strategy. Other major automakers that showed off electric vehicle concepts included Stellantis with its Airflow concept and Mercedes-Benz with the EQXX. Stellantis actually had a bunch of news, including that it will turn Chrysler into an all-electric brand. The big overall announcement was the tip-to-tail agreement Stellantis now has with Amazon that covers a cloud computing contract, software development and supplying the e-commerce company with its upcoming all-electric Ram Promaster vans. I interviewed Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares and am saving the good stuff for this coming week. And then there is Mercedes-Benz and its EQXX concept. This isn’t meant to be your typical we”ll-never-see-this-again concept car. The EQXX is meant to showcase what the automaker’s electric future will look like and includes a ton of tech and features, which Markus Schäfer, a board member of Daimler AG and CTO of Mercedes-Benz AG, told me will show up in vehicles beginning in 2024. There were lots of smaller players as well that I want to briefly mention. ElectraMeccanica showed off a few of its single occupant EVs, including the SOLO “O2” Oxygen, which has a redesigned dashboard and the SOLO Cargo, a modified version of the flagship vehicle, designed to accommodate a wide range of commercial applications. Then there was Triggo, a fun-looking single occupant electric vehicle that can actually get slimmer if needed. Image Credits: Triggo/screenshot OK folks, that’s it. Thanks for hanging in there for the CES information dump. This coming week I plan to feature interviews with Stellantis’ Tavares, GM’s Hester and Toyota chief scientist Dr. Gill Pratt. |
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